Muslim Coins as a Commodity and Means of Payment in International and Internal Trade In Volga-Ural Region In 8th- Beginning of 11th cc

The article examines the spread of Muslim Kufic coins in Eastern, Western and Northern Europe, on the territory of Volga Bulgaria, Ancient Rus, the neighbours of Bulgars – ancestors of the Mari, Udmurt, Mordva and other Finno-Ugric ethnicities during the early Middle Ages in the 8th – beginning of the 11th centuries. The research of these coins shows the list of countries and Muslim dynasties the above-mentioned countries had trade relations with and their chronological framework. Coins of Umayyads, Abbasids, Samanids, Buwayhids, Ziyarids, Qarakhanids and other Muslim dynasties were discovered. Ways of Kufic dirhems expansion and their chronological framework are shown. The main role of Khazar Khanate is marked for the time span of 8th – 9th centuries whereas since X century the principal part was played by Volga Bulgaria. American numismatist T. Noonan designated them as Khazar and Bulgar phases of trade of Kufic coins. Bulgar coins, minted in 902–990-s, participated actively in this process. Together they acted as a commodity and medium of exchange, which reflected the scale of trade operations of the early Middle Ages. The study of Muslim Kufic dirhems allowed the author to clear up the role of Khazar Khanate and Volga Bulgaria in the functioning of Great Silk and Volga routes in the 8th – beginning of the 11th centuries.

Review of the monograph: Matiev T.Kh. The Mountain National Movement in Revolutions and the Civil War in the North Caucasus (1917–1921) (Nazran, 2020)

This article focuses on the analysis of the monograph by T.Kh. Matiev ”Mountain national movement in revolutions and the Civil War in the North Caucasus (1917–1921)”, published in 2020 in Nazran. This study presents an original and comprehensive approach and addresses one of the most difficult cases in the history of the North Caucasus of the 20th century – the origins of the Mountain Republic. The driving force behind the idea of a federation and the protection of the rights of mountain peoples was the young intellectuals of the North Caucasus. In this regard, the reviewer sees parallels with Jadidism in the Volga-Ural region, the activity of the Tatar intellectual youth of the early 20th century, the ideas of national and cultural autonomy. The Muslim peoples of the North Caucasus and the Tatars had much in common: one religious culture, a desire for modernization from educated groups and contradictions in society. Monograph by T.Kh. Matiev shows the multiethnic world of the Russian Empire, at the same time it points to the commonality of many issues and the need for their further scientific study.

Association between miRNA Target Sites and Incidence of Primary Osteoarthritis in Women from Volga-Ural Region of Russia: A Case-Control Study

Over the past decades, numerous studies on the genetic markers of osteoarthritis (OA) have been conducted. MiRNA targets sites are a promising new area of research. In this study, we analyzed the polymorphic variants in 3′ UTR regions of COL1A1, COL11A1, ADAMTS5, MMP1, MMP13, SOX9, GDF5, FGF2, FGFR1, and FGFRL1 genes to examine the association between miRNA target site alteration and the incidence of OA in women from the Volga-Ural region of Russia using competitive allele-specific PCR. The T allele of the rs9659030 was associated with generalized OA (OR = 2.0), whereas the C allele of the rs229069 was associated with total OA (OR = 1.43). The T allele of the rs13317 was associated with the total OA (OR = 1.67). After Benjamini-Hochberg correction, only rs13317 remained statistically significant. According to ethnic heterogeneity, associations between the T allele (rs1061237) with OA in women of Russian descent (OR = 1.77), the G allele (rs6854081) in women of Tatar descent (OR = 4.78), the C allele (rs229069) and the T allele (rs73611720) in women of mixed descent and other ethnic groups (OR = 2.25 and OR = 3.02, respectively) were identified. All associations remained statistically significant after Benjamini-Hochberg correction. Together, this study identified miRNA target sites as a genetic marker for the development of OA in various ethnic groups.

Ethnic Differences in the Frequency of CFTR Gene Mutations in Populations of the European and North Caucasian Part of the Russian Federation

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a common monogenic disease caused by pathogenic variants in the CFTR gene. The distribution and frequency of CFTR variants vary in different countries and ethnic groups. The spectrum of pathogenic variants of the CFTR gene was previously studied in more than 1,500 CF patients from different regions of the European and North Caucasian region of Russia and the spectrum of the most frequent pathogenic variants of the CFTR gene and ethnic features of their distribution were determined. To assess the population frequency of CFTR gene mutations some of the common variants were analyzed in the samples of healthy unrelated individuals from the populations of the European part of the Russian Federation: 1,324 Russians from four European regions (Pskov, Tver, Rostov, and Kirov regions), representatives of five indigenous ethnic groups of the Volga-Ural region [Mari (n = 505), Udmurts (n = 613), Chuvash (n = 780), Tatars (n = 704), Bashkirs (n = 517)], and six ethnic groups of the North Caucasus [Karachay (n = 324), Nogais (n = 118), Circassians (n = 102), Abazins (n = 128), Ossetians (n = 310), and Chechens (n = 100)]. The frequency of common CFTR mutations was established in studied ethnic groups. The frequency of F508del mutation in Russians was found to be 0.0056 on average, varying between four regions, from 0.0027 in the Pskov region to 0.0069 in the Rostov region. Three variants W1282X, 1677delTA, and F508del were identified in the samples from the North Caucasian populations: in Karachay, the frequency of W1282X mutation was 0.0092, 1677delTA mutation – 0.0032; W1282X mutation in the Nogais sample – 0.0127, the frequency of F508del mutations was 0.0098 and 1677delTA – 0.0098 in Circassians; in Abazins F508del (0.0039), W1282X (0.0039) and 1677delTA (0.0117) mutations were found. In the indigenous peoples of the Volga-Ural region, the maximum frequency of the F508del mutation was detected in the Tatar population (0.099), while this mutation was never detected in the Mari and Bashkir populations. The E92K variant was found in Chuvash and Tatar populations. Thus, interethnic differences in the spectra of CFTR gene variants were shown both in CF patients and in healthy population of the European and North Caucasian part of Russia.

The Promiscuous Life of a Genre for the Dead: The Marthiya as an Instrument of Community Construction in Muslim Russia

This article explores how the Islamic elegiac genre of marthiya can shed new light on the social and cultural history of the Muslims of Russia’s Volga-Ural region in the late imperial period (1870s-1917). The marthiyas enjoyed great popularity across geographical, ethnic, and factional lines as a medium for asserting and affirming social bonds and expressing collective identities. Volga-Ural marthiyas reveal the links between Sufism and Tatar national history-writing, demonstrate the interrelation between Sufi literature and Muslim revolutionary culture, and point to historical figures and groups that were left out of the evolving Tatar national historiography.

Genetic Variant c.245A>G (p.Asn82Ser) in GIPC3 Gene Is a Frequent Cause of Hereditary Nonsyndromic Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Chuvash Population

Hereditary nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss is a disease in which hearing loss occurs due to damage to the organ of the inner ear, the auditory nerve, or the center in the brain that is responsible for the perception of sound, characterized by wide locus and allelic heterogeneity and different types of inheritance. Given the diversity of population of the Russian Federation, it seems necessary to study the ethnic characteristics of the molecular causes of the disease. The aim is to study the molecular and genetic causes of hereditary sensorineural hearing loss in Chuvash, the fifth largest ethnic group in Russia. DNA samples of 26 patients from 21 unrelated Chuvash families from the Republic of Chuvashia, in whom the diagnosis of hereditary sensorineural hearing loss had been established, were analyzed using a combination of targeted Sanger sequencing, multiplex ligase-dependent probe amplification, and whole exome sequencing. The homozygous variant NM_133261.3(GIPC3):c.245A>G (p.Asn82Ser) is the major molecular cause of hereditary sensorineural hearing loss in 23% of Chuvash patients (OMIM #601869). Its frequency was 25% in patients and 1.1% in healthy Chuvash population. Genotyping of the NM_133261.3(GIPC3):c.245A>G (p.Asn82Ser) variant in five neighboring populations from the Volga-Ural region (Russian, Udmurt, Mary, Tatar, Bushkir) found no evidence that this variant is common in those populations.